No Time For Betrayal
by VioTanequil
Summary: As time ticks down to the sneak entry into Seireitei, there is but one thought on all of their minds. There is but one goal. There is but one fight, the fight with the values that govern them all. The fight to rival all fights, the first... and the last.


As they enter the Senkaimon,

As they step through the gates,

As they fly through the shield,

As they crash to the ground,

As they watch the burning star,

As they trace it's falling path,

As they look,

And as they smile…

* * *

Kurosaki Ichigo feels betrayed.

Kurosaki Ichigo cannot, for the life of him, understand why his father, his own father, would hide something like this from him. Why? Was it truly so important? When would he have told him? When he had gone insane from seeing the ghosts and hollows around him? When he had been slain by hollows? When he was dying? When he had stumbled into trouble? When he realized that he had considerable power? When the family was endangered because of his constantly emitted reiatsu? When?

_When were you going to tell me, Otou-san?  
_  
Kurosaki Ichigo feels betrayed.

* * *

Kuchiki Rukia feels betrayed.

Kuchiki Rukia does not know why it is that as she made the choice, as she made the choice to leave her roots behind, to progress towards a better future, it ended up leading her into a dark room and shutting the door on her future, her cell jailed by an emotionless uncaring façade of an older brother. She does not admit this, but she wants to know why it is that even when this happened, her best friend, her very best friend in the world, did nothing.

_Where were you, Renji?  
_  
Kuchiki Rukia feels betrayed.

* * *

Ishida Uryuu feels betrayed.

Ishida Uryuu refuses to accept that it was sensei's time to go. There was no way he would just leave like that. There was no way Souken would leave his little protégé, his only grandson in the hands of a cold heartless bastard like Ryuuken. There was no way. There was no way he would just up and leave. There were so many things he could learn, so many things he had to learn! Who was to teach these things to him?

_Ojii-san, why did you go? Why did you leave me?  
_  
Ishida Uryuu feels betrayed.

* * *

Urahara Kisuke feels betrayed.

Urahara Kisuke rejects the fact that he was abandoned and framed by Soul Society, that the very institution that gave rise to his home, the very reason why he had been brought into the Shihouin compound, had been the one to cast him ruthlessly aside, a puppet in a greater game of an undeserving. And it hurts that no one believed him. Even those who followed him and had not seen had doubt in them. He could see it. He still can.

_Why is it my fault? How is it my fault?  
_  
Urahara Kisuke feels betrayed.

* * *

Abarai Renji feels betrayed.

Abarai Renji cannot accept that he was to just leave her alone, in a too-large mansion all by herself. Rukia is too small, too vulnerable; she cannot survive on her own, what she needs, ironically, it is what cannot be bought. She could have been a shinigami if she had stuck on and continued her studies. Her excellence in kido, from what he had heard from Hisagi-sempai and some of the others, was just that close to prodigious. She could have had anything, everything.

_Why then, Rukia? Why did you forget me?_

Abarai Renji feels betrayed.

* * *

Shiba Kuukaku feels betrayed.

Shiba Kuukaku will never, never, ever, accept Kaien's passing just like that. No freaking way. There is no way that a lieutenant level shinigami like her idiot brother would just up and die. There is no way that there are hollows in Seireitei. It is simply impossible for husband and wife to die together in the space of a single night. There is no way she, Shiba Kuukaku, will allow two of her relatives to just pass on like that. Ukitake has to be lying.

_But why, Nii-chan? Why leave me behind?  
_  
Shiba Kuukaku feels betrayed.

* * *

Hitsugaya Toshiro feels betrayed.

Hitsugaya Toshiro adamantly turns a blind eye to the sheer… blindness. He cannot stand it. What is wrong with all of them? Are they all blind? The hints are everywhere! It has to be that they choose not to see. It just has to be. There is no way these hints could be missed! Something is happening, and yet no one else can see it! They are all captains, they are all soldiers, they are all intelligent!

_Why then? Why can no one see Ichimaru Gin?_

_Why does no one see him?  
_  
Hitsugaya Toshiro feels betrayed.

* * *

Kyouraku Shunsui feels betrayed.

Kyouraku Shunsui cannot believe what the world has come to, where seasoned fighters like himself have no choice but to go along and fight children so new to fights, so new to fighting itself that they do not know their own strength. Why, he does not even need to do anything, his subconsciously emitted power outstrips theirs by far. And still, they want him to do it. They want him to kill. Should they not know by now, that he _abhors_ killing, that the fight has no joy?

_Why force him, then?  
_  
Kyouraku Shunsui feels betrayed.

* * *

Yamada Hanatarou feels betrayed.

She is such a good person, such a nice person, such a wonderful person. What she did was in the best interests of all those there, and it was the right thing to do. No matter how dangerous it would be, even Ichigo-san is a nice person. What are these rules? He has never seen them before, never encountered them, never thought about them. They were always there, always present to guide, to sculpt and to shape. They were for the good of all.

_Why then? Why are the rules hurting people?  
_  
Yamada Hanatarou feels betrayed.

* * *

Kuchiki Byakuya feels betrayed.

It is so difficult, so difficult to make a choice. He has to weigh both sides, he has to make a decision, he has to harden his heart. It has to be logical, it has to be loyal, it has to be perfect. And there is no one from whom advice can be sought. All of them prey to emotions; he is alone in this world. Though somehow, somehow, it seems it is not them at a disadvantage but him. And he has to choose. He still has to choose.

_Why? Why does he have to choose?  
_  
Kuchiki Byakuya feels betrayed.

* * *

Zaraki Kenpachi does not feel betrayed.

Neither does Kurotsuchi Mayuri.

* * *

After all, there is nothing to regret.

Nothing to run from.

Nothing to fear.

No time to waste.

The fight is on.


End file.
